Charities who are considering an upgrade to their IT system are likely to be faced with a difficult question – should they go for cloud-based or remain on-premise?
While both are viable options, we believe that for most charities cloud-based is the answer.
That is why we are sharing these 6 reasons why charities should go cloud-based when they are looking to upgrade their IT systems.
1. Lower Costs
By far the biggest “selling point” of going cloud-based with IT systems is the vastly reduced cost and this is because going with cloud technology frees you from purchasing expensive equipment upfront. You also avoid paying the costs to keep a server room cool 24/7.
A monthly subscription helps keep costs manageable and predictable as well as allowing for easy scaling up or down as required.
2. Support Remote Working
Never has the demand to be able to work remotely been higher. Covid-19 decimated city centres and completely changed how and where people work.
Having cloud IT systems can allow you to facilitate things like working from home but it also helps charities who deliver services to more remote locations. Now, all you need is an internet connection to access files or update notes that can easily be shared across teams.
3. Free Up Office Space
We mentioned the benefit of not having to buy kit in the first point, but this also opens a different benefit, more office space. With the cloud, you no longer have to house large data servers which allows you to reclaim the space you would have lost. Whether that means more office space, a new meeting room, or being able to have a larger staff room, your charity will benefit.
4. The Learning Curve is Small
The great thing about many cloud-based IT systems is they are incredibly easy to set up and run. They have been designed with ease of use in mind which helps team members have an easier time learning how to use them.
Take Office365 for example, which is near identical to the desktop version of Office that your team are used to using. The only thing they need to learn here is that changes now happen in real-time rather than when they save.
All of this helps save money too as you do not need bespoke IT staff, freeing up budget in your charity.
5. Encourage Collaborative Work
Cloud-based systems allow an unparalleled level of collaborative work across an organisation. Documents can be shared and worked on in real time and applications like Microsoft Teams allows meetings to be effectively scheduled and held remotely.
6. Train Staff Remotely
The events of 2020 have shown the importance of being able to work together from a variety of locations and cloud-based technology can help drive this.
This is especially true for onboarding new staff who may live far away from your charity’s head office. Being able to onboard remotely can save them travelling and can even allow you to recruit from across the UK.
We have helped several charities to embrace cloud-based ways of working. So, to find out how our experts can help you, get in touch with us.